The AIDS 2010 rapporteurs held their Summary Session immediately before the Closing Session on Friday. All week long, rapporteurs have been “scurrying around” collecting and synthesizing presentations, according to session Chair Alan Whiteside, Director of the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division at the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. The rapporteurs - experienced scientists, clinicians, researchers and advocates from around the world - summarised many of the presentations made during the week, focusing on critical issues addressed, important results presented and key recommendations put forward. The rapporteur reports will be available here and in the Programme-at-a-Glance. More...

By Billie-Jean Nieuwenhuys, Policy Officer, International AIDS Society

The universal access pledge to provide HIV prevention, treatment, care and support to all those in need by 2010 was a key focus of the XVIII International AIDS Conference. There was wide scale agreement that although the commitment will not be achieved this year, the struggle to achieve universal access needs to continue. The conference provided the opportunity to take stock of the universal access pledge and devise strategies for taking the pledge forwards beyond 2010. As Dr. Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS points out, “it is not a time to scale down, but to scale up.”

The key debates on reaching universal access by 2015 appear to centre around two core issues: raising the overall resource demand from international donors as well as national governments and making more effective and efficient use of the resources available now. The Deputy President of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe stated that “It is our duty and responsibility to use the platforms of the G8 and the G20 to advocate for more resources and that even as the world experiences an economic downturn, investments in HIV must not be the soft target for global austerity measures." More...

Presenters at the Opening Session spoke boldly about the state of the epidemic and the steps necessary to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

A full webcast and audio of Sunday’s Opening Session is available here. Photos here. Quotes from some of the speakers follow with more to be added.

Julio Montaner, (Canada) AIDS 2010 Chair, President of the International AIDS Society and Director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS in Vancouver, Canada

“I cannot hide my profound disappointment and deep frustration with the recently concluded G8/G20 meetings in Canada. By failing to take responsibility for the universal access pledge, and more importantly for failing to articulate next steps to meet not just the 6th Millenium Development Goal but all of them by 2015, the G8 has, quite simply, failed us.”

(c)IAS/Marcus Rose/Workers' Photos

“When it comes to universal access, the G8 chose to ignore their commitments before the crisis, and they are poised to continue to do so today. Let’s be clear: It is only a matter of priorities and, friends, their priorities have to change. Therefore, our number one objective here today must be to ensure that AIDS remains at the top of their agenda.”

Full remarks.

Brigitte Schmied, AIDS 2010 Local Co-Chair and President of the Austrian AIDS Society, Austria

“Rights Here, Right Now also emphasizes the right to health care, including access to all scientifically sound HIV prevention interventions, such as opioid substitution therapy and needle and syringe programmes.  To this end, I urge each of you to add your voice to the growing call for the reform of illicit drug policies by signing the Vienna Declaration.  Treatment, not prosecution, is demanded!”

“In our shrinking world, the goal of universal access and global health can no longer be viewed as a story about ‘others.’ These are our stories. Universal access is our responsibility. And, holding ourselves and our political leaders accountable is our continued challenge. Let us meet this challenge with tenacity and fervour in the days and months ahead.”

Full remarks.

Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mali

“The shared responsibility we have to the world belongs to all governments, civil society, and every agency – bilateral, multilateral and normative.  The time has come for a Robin Hood tax, so the financial sector contributes its fair share as well. Our vision must be uncompromising.  We want nothing less than: Zero new infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths.”

“Gender equality must become part of our DNA.” 

Heinz Fischer, Federal President of the Republic of Austria

“Even if I fully support that free, gender-balanced access to treatment is a fundamental human right, we will not be able to contain the epidemic any time if we do not implement an integrated approach of prevention, care and treatment.”

“I strongly urge governments, where they have not yet done so, to institute and ensure the enforcement of laws and to create a legal framework enabling the implementation of all measures needed in the successful fight against HIV/AIDS.”

[Originally posted 14 June 2010]

AIDS 2010 will take place at a pivotal time in the HIV epidemic. This is the target year that the leaders of the Group of 8 (G8) -- and eventually all UN member states -- set for achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. Since the universal access target was set five years ago, we have made significant strides:

• By December 2008, over four million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy in low- and middle-income countries, one million more than in the previous year.
• Almost half of all pregnant women living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries received antiretrovirals to prevent mother-to-child transmission.
• More people were counseled and tested for HIV in 2008 than in previous years.
• More children living with HIV are benefiting from treatment and care programmes.

Kicosehp NGO, Kibera Community Self Help programme, Kenya. Credit: UNAIDS/G. Pirozzi.

Though we still have far to go, this progress is tangible evidence of the feasibility of scaling up HIV programmes, even in the poorest areas. More...

By Kieran Daly, Executive Director, International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO), an AIDS 2010 Organizing Partner

The XVIII International AIDS Conference takes place at a critical time. 2010. The target year by which the world was to have achieved universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

As a long-standing member of the Conference Coordinating Committee, the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO) believes that AIDS 2010 is a key opportunity to hold world leaders accountable and push them to make a difference in turning the tide on the AIDS pandemic.

We know that investing in AIDS responses is a good example of how the world can effectively respond to health challenges and have real impact. An example of this is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which alone has financed programmes that will save an estimated five million – including putting 2.5 million people on HIV treatment by 2009. More...

Resources for universal access and HIV persistance are among the timely issues featured in a special pre-conference HIV/AIDS edition (8 July) of the journal Science.

“Universal Access in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS” documents the scientific evidence and moral arguments in support of increased investments to scale up HIV prevention, treatment and care towards the goal of universal access, helping to lay the groundwork for what will be a central topic in Vienna.

The article’s authors are Françoise Girard, Nathan Ford, Dr. Julio Montaner, Dr. Pedro Cahn and Dr. Elly Katabira. Girard is Co-Chair and Ford a member of the AIDS 2010 Leadership and Accountability Programme Committee and Dr. Montaner is AIDS 2010 Chair and President of the International AIDS Society (IAS). Dr. Cahn was AIDS 2008 Chair and is IAS Immediate Past-President and Dr. Katabira is IAS President-Elect and will serve as AIDS 2012 Chair.

In their conclusion, the authors note, “A retrenchment on AIDS today would seriously jeopardize the substantial progress made to date, at the cost of untold human sacrifice and billions of dollars in economic resources. Furthermore, the increasingly recognized benefit of ART in reducing HIV transmission dramatically enhances the value of the longstanding universal access pledge. As the deadline for universal access looms, greater investment in HIV is a necessary, evidence- based, economic, and moral choice.”

“HIV Persistence and the Prospect of Long-Term Drug-Free Remissions in HIV-Infected Individuals” was produced in conjunction with the IAS Pre-Conference Workshop Towards a Cure: HIV Reservoirs and Strategies to Control Them, chaired by IAS Governing Council Member and Nobel Laureate Françoise Barré-Sinoussi of the Institut Pasteur. More...

By Amy Cartwright, Writer/Web Coordinator, AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW)

On 20 June, AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW) kicked off its summer campaign Vienna Express 2010: Towards Universal Access in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. From here, the campaign has begun its journey through 13 countries in Europe and Central Asia. We are posting frequent updates about all of our activities and urge you to follow along and take part.

Teenagers read a "living book" at a Vienna Express event in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

As it trundles across Eurasia, the campaign is taking in a wide variety of public events (concerts, street campaigns, visits to HIV prevention and treatment projects, roundtables, book launches, wrestling matches – our inventiveness knows no bounds!). The goal is to generate media and political attention to the HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) in the run-up to AIDS 2010.

At the same time, we and our partners are collecting messages for conference delegates from the people we meet at our events. These messages include people’s wishes about the response to HIV and drug use, opinions on the importance of harm reduction and the need to make HIV prevention, treatment, care and support much more widely available. More...

By Vladimir Zhovtyak, President, ECUO, an AIDS 2010 Organizing Partner.

The East Europe and Central Asia Union of PLWH (ECUO) brings together PLHIV communities and organizations from 14 countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) through our joint Russian language and one common goal. ECUO’s goal through 2025 is to ensure access to comprehensive treatment, care and support for adults and children living with HIV in EECA countries through effective partnership and actions of the PLHIV community. ECUO is the only organization in the world representing PLHIV from EECA.

AIDS 2010 will take place at a pivotal time in the HIV epidemic. This is the target year that the leaders of the Group of 8 (G8) -- and eventually all UN member states -- set for achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. Since the universal access target was set five years ago, we have made significant strides:

• By December 2008, over four million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy in low- and middle-income countries, one million more than in the previous year.
• Almost half of all pregnant women living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries received antiretrovirals to prevent mother-to-child transmission.
• More people were counseled and tested for HIV in 2008 than in previous years.
• More children living with HIV are benefiting from treatment and care programmes.

Kicosehp NGO, Kibera Community Self Help programme, Kenya. Credit: UNAIDS/G. Pirozzi.